Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, the problem is...they have no wealth. They may have low paying jobs or even two jobs. Or a reasonable job yet high debts or living expenses. Barely getting by, with no prospect of ever building up more meaningful wealth. It's super cool that their 5K turns into 6K in 10 years time, but that doesn't do anything. You might as well turn it into 100K. Or lose it all. Fuck it. I don't think you understand the dire s…
> It's super cool that their 5K turns into 6K in 10 years time Ok, I get it. You’ve not actually looked at what other investments are like. 20% return over 10 years? The S&P 500 is on track to do that this year, after one of the biggest rallies in history last year. $5k invested just before the covid collapse would still be worth far more than $6k, and that’s 18 months through a global pandemic. That said, your answe…
A lesser known reason is that since the 2008 crisis, hardly any new homes got built. Whilst the underlying demand was still in place, and growing.
"You can’t sell anyone a home for $485k if they can only get a $166k mortgage"
You only need enough buyers that can afford a 485K mortgage to meet supply. So when supply is very low (which in my country is very much true), if only 25% of the potential buyers can afford that mortgage it's still enough to buy the supply. Which they do, and they even overbid still.
So this can keep going for a long while. Not even a crash solves it. Our 2008 crash dropped prices by 20% only. Which is now the gain in a single year.
So that leaves the only other option you mention: wages.